The now famous Portland Frog. Photo credit uncertain. Picture posted here.
Hi, all, and happy Sunday!
It’s been another horrific week in Trump’s America, yet we’re seeing increased courage, resiliency, and community-mindedness everywhere. Portland and Chicago are models of resistance, Trump keeps losing in court, and more and more Americans are waking up to this administration’s lawlessness and standing up to it in ways big and small.
In fact, victories are happening everywhere.
So yes, it’s a brutal time. But let’s take a few minutes to celebrate the places where brutality was eclipsed by progress, kindness, courage, and/or ingenuity.
Enjoy this list, y’all. you’ve earned it. And please, please share it with someone in despair. Remind them that the more people get involved, the longer future lists like this will be.
Read This 📖
I love this.
Celebrate This! 🎉
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors became the first county in the nation to pass an ethical investment policy.
A New York county’s law banning transgender women from playing on female sports teams at county-run parks and recreational facilities has been halted for now.
A Wyoming library director who was fired amid a book dispute was awarded a $700,000 settlement.
California will have the nation’s first AI safety law, requiring major AI companies to reveal their safety protocols.
Mackenzie Scott donated $50 million to a nonprofit that offers scholarships to Native students.
Renewable energy surpassed coal as the world’s leading source of electricity in the first half of of 2025.
Starting next year, New York will become the first state in the nation to require private insurers to cover scalp cooling for chemotherapy patients, a method for reducing hair loss during cancer treatment.
A French court rejected the appeal of a former construction worker found guilty last year of the aggravated rape of Gisele Pelicot, and increased his prison sentence by a year to ten years.
Marjorie Taylor Greene is sticking up for affordable health care.
Pope Leo made some of his strongest comments yet, urging U.S. bishops to strongly support immigrants as Trump escalated his deportation campaign, including in Chicago, the pope’s hometown.
Stephen Miller’s own cousin called him “evil” and a disgrace to his family.
The Supreme Court declined to take up an appeal from Laura Loomer, the prominent far-right influencer and ally of President Donald Trump who sued social media companies for yanking her off their platforms.
Billionaire and philanthropist Tom Steyer donated $12 million to support the California Prop 50 redistricting ballot measure.
California became the first state to phase ultraprocessed food out of school meals.
Philadelphia is on track to record the lowest number of homicides in 20 years.
The Supreme Court denied a review of Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal conviction. She will remain behind bars, unless Trump pardons her.
A new California law prohibits businesses in the state from using third-party algorithms to arbitrarily change prices — perhaps the most significant step yet to rein in dynamic pricing.
A group of former USAID staff launched a new “matchmaking” project that has secured new funding for almost 80 programs impacted by funding cuts, benefiting an estimated 40 million people.
Spain has successfully decoupled the influence of fossil fuels on the price of electricity by growing its wind and solar installations, making its wholesale electricity price 32% lower than the European Union average in the first half of the year.
The Pentagon has backed off of its crazy new press rules.
Australia has put itself on a realistic path to achieving what climate activists around the world have long dreamed of: running its power grid entirely on renewable energy.
A plane circled Chicago’s Soldier Field before the Bears home opener with a banner that read— “HEY ICE, MASKS ARE FOR CUCKS.”
Gov. Newsom signed a bill into law that will allow police oversight officials investigating misconduct to access confidential law enforcement personnel records, a change that watchdogs have argued will increase accountability for officers who break the rules.
In Fairbanks, AK, Mayor David Pruhs, an anti-LGBTQ Republican, lost his reelection bid to challenger Mindy O’Neall, a Democrat.
One of the key thinkers behind the Republican Party’s authoritarian project is apparently getting cold feet and planning to flee the country.
It’s small comfort, but the manosphere influencers who helped put Trump into office are now cooling on him.
The $5 billion Biden-era federal EV charging program, once under attack by the Trump administration, is now moving along following a June court order that ruled efforts to freeze the money were illegal.
One of the largest ports in the Midwest is officially starting to decarbonize, thanks to a Biden-era grant program that has so far survived the Trump administration’s assault on all things clean energy.
Beavers restored to tribal lands in California are helping revitalize ecosystems by creating wetlands that boost biodiversity, improve water quality, and build climate resilience.
Solar is crushing gas power in California this year.
Tennessee state Rep. Aftyn Behn (a CWCW subscriber, y’all!) has clinched the Democratic nomination in the special primary for Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, beating three other candidates in the district’s first four-way Democratic primary in decades!
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis announced that the state is increasing its tax credit from $6,000 to $9,000 for buying or leasing a new EV.
A progressive won the Palmer, Alaska mayoral race! Palmer is a very conservative city about 40 minutes north of Anchorage, and is part of the most conservative enclave in the state.
Hundreds of people arrested by ICE agents around Chicago over the past few months could be released, according to a new federal ruling.
Dozens of Bob Ross paintings, many of them created live on his PBS series The Joy of Painting, will be auctioned starting in November to support public television.
The Port of Portland is choosing not to broadcast a new video that shows DHS Secretary Kristi Noem blaming Democrats for the federal government shutdown.
The entire congregation of a Catholic church in Maywood IL walked out after mass and marched to the local detention center where the priest demanded to go inside and bless those held by ICE.
MIT rejected a memo that the White House sent to nine elite U.S. universities last week detailing policies they should follow to get preferential consideration for federal funding.
A federal judge entered an order preliminarily blocking the sweeping restrictions the Trump-Vance administration imposed on federal grants administered byHHS and HUD. This decision safeguards critical services for survivors of domestic and sexual violence, LGBTQI+ youth, and unhoused communities.
Deportation proceedings have been dropped against John Shin, the 37-year-old professional violinist who was detained by ICE on his wife’s birthday.
Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, a Republican and the chairman of the National Governors Association, criticized the deployment of Texas National Guard troops to Illinois as a violation of his beliefs in federalism and “states’ rights.”
CA Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill allowing more housing projects near major public transit stops.
A federal appeals court rejected the Trump administration’s request to immediately allow the deployment of National Guard troops to Illinois, leaving in place a lower court’s order that blocked the mobilization temporarily.
Israel and Hamas have agreed to implement the first phase of a peace deal to end their two-year war, bring a ceasefire, and exchange Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
Trump did NOT win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Texas’ highest criminal court blocked Robert Roberson’s execution a week before it was set to take place, sending his case back to trial court.
A federal judge in Chicago issued a temporary restraining order blocking federal agencies from using certain forceful tactics to suppress protests or prevent journalists from covering those protests.
After decades of protests, Vogue publisher Condé Nast will no longer feature animal fur in any editorial content or advertising.
Palestinian refugee Omar Yaghi was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry alongside Susumu Kitagawa and Richard Robson for their work developing a new form of molecular architecture, which has the potential to limit the impacts of climate change.
In another win from California’s whirlwind legislative session, a new law places a $100 cap on homeowners’ association fees and associated penalties, potentially saving homeowners millions of dollars.
The New Mexico state legislature passed a bill to address the expiration of Biden-era tax credits for Affordable Care Act premiums, which are poised to increase some people’s health insurance premiums by thousands of dollars.
There are now more than 2500 No Kings protests scheduled for next week. TWENTY FIVE HUNDRED YOU GUYS!
A person in an inflatable frog costume has become the face of the resistance in Portland. In fact, inflatable animals abound. This is a PERFECT way to stand up to fascism. Bravo!
Watch This! 👀
Zohran Mamdani released a campaign ad celebrating the history of trans New Yorkers and promising to fight for them. It is honestly one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.
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